'Western Bay Beauty Treatment'

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A daily taste of Newfoundlandia


“Sir—Being a young man working in St. John’s, I have noticed the ugliness of many women in town. These women need an expert ‘Western Bay Beauty Treatment’, which is sure to do something to unclog those dusty pores, brighten up scraggley hair and improve townie faces. First, you need the hair washed and adorned with a perfumed concoction made from codfish and halibut oil. Second, you need a facial bath in salt water taken from Doctor’s Cove in Western Bay. Third, to unclog your pores you need a bath in perfumed urine from young cows. Fourth, to curl your hair, you need bones from the legs of young billy goats. This beauty treatment was passed down to me by my great grandmother and I am sure that all young ladies in St. John’s will be pleased now that I pass it on to them.”— Charles Edwin Slade, Western Bay, C.B., Nfld.

— Town Crier, September 1973.

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